DAILY TRUST
FCT Minister and former Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike’s hold on the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) structure in his home state while at the same time hobnobbing with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has put the main opposition PDP in quandary, Daily Trust Saturday reports.
The current political development in Rivers State and the situation within the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have shown that a politician is holding both the ruling and the opposition party by the jugular at the same time. And it is arguably the first time in the political history of Nigeria.
The man at the centre of this political drama is the immediate governor of Rivers State and current minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Nyesom Wike.
While it has been widely reported that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) owes his electoral success in Rivers State to Wike, the former governor’s insistence that he remains a member of the PDP even after taking up appointment in the APC, has continued to generate ripples across the two main political parties.
Opinions have remained divided in the PDP over the status of the former governor, even before his recent fallout with his successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Some stakeholders have told the party to suspend or sack him, while others insist that he remain a member owing to his long-standing contribution to the party over the years.
Some others have also insisted that the minister has already left the party following his activities before and during the elections, and his acceptance of the ministerial slot from the ruling APC.
It is believed in several quarters that Wike does not only want to maintain the position of the PDP leader in Rivers but also the leader of the APC in the state through the appointment of his loyalists as members of the caretaker committee of the party.
How trouble started over battle for zoning
Recall that the impasse between the PDP and Wike started following the refusal of the party hierarchy and its National Executive Committee (NEC) to zone the presidential slot to the South. Many of the southern stakeholders and presidential aspirants also felt shortchanged that the National Working Committee of the party started selling presidential nomination forms even when discussions over the zoning arrangement were still ongoing.
Many reasons were adduced by the proponents of the zoning formula, with those in support of the North saying that only the late President Umar Musa Yar’adua had been president of the country on the platform of the PDP from the North since 1999.
The southern proponents, on their part, insisted that after the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, the mood of the country did not favour another northern president, and as such, the ticket should be zoned to the South to give the PDP a fighting chance. Unable to pacify both parties, the party, at its NEC meeting, threw the contest open.
